Lace-making machine.



No. 779,876. PATENTED JAN. 10, 1905.

I. SCHMIDT.

LACE MAKING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 19, 1904.

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ATTORNEYS PATENTED JAN. 10, 1905.

HA. SCHMIDT. LACE MAKING MACHINE,

APPLICATION FILED MAY 19, 1904.

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WITNESSES ATTORNEYS No. 779,876. PATENTED JAN. 10, 1905. F. A. SCHMIDT.

LAGB MAKING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED MAY 19, 1904.

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WITNESSES M. M

ATTORNEYS UNITED STATES Patented January 10, 1905.

FRIEDRICH AUGUST SCHMIDT, OF BARMEN, GERMANY.

, LACE-MAKING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. '7 79,8? 6, datedJanuary 10, 1905.

' Application filed May I9, 1904. Serial No. 208,725.

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FRIEDRICH AUGUST SoIIMIDT, a subject of the King ofPrussia, Emperor of Grermany,and a resident of Lowenstrasse 7, Barmen,Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Lace-Making Machines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription.

The present invention relates to a lace-making machine for manufacturingopen flat fabrics, which is distinguished from hithertoknown lace-makingmachines by the means for guiding and directing the bobbins and fordrawing off the finished fabric.

In the production of lace it is necessary for it to be possible for anydesired bobbin to be brought to rest at any desired crossing-place anydesired number of times and for any desired length of time and to be setin operation again and for it to be possible for any bobbin to becrossed with a bobbin situated on the right or left. Devices, indeed,are known in which the stopping and starting are eflected by means of asingle device; but the guidance of the bobbins is always brought aboutby a special devicefor instance, by the well-known tongue switches,which swing to and fro. The stopping of the bobbin in the case of thewell-known devices is brought about by guiding the bobbin into a blindsiding, which is arranged at any part of a race, but nevertheless not atthe crossing-place of two races, in which siding it remains untilstarted again. This arrangement of the siding has the disadvantage thata turning or directing of the bobbins at the place Where they arestopped is impossible, as the bobbins after again coming within reach ofthe driving-wings must always be first moved up to the nextcrossingplace, where a turning or directing by means of the well-knowntongue-switches is possible. An additional defect possessed by the lacemaking machines hitherto known for manufacturing open flat fabrics isthat the fabric, when it is produced over a tube-shaped body moving overthe mandrel, is formed into a closed fabric by means of supplementarythreads at its corners or edges, which assumes its flat open form aftercutting the supplementary threads employed. The attempt was made toavoid the use of supplementary threads by holding the edges together bymeans of chains carrying needles arranged in the mandrel. Thisarrangement again had, in the case of the aforesaid machines, thedisadvantage that as the fabric was drawn off directly over the mandrela tearing of the fabric was possible.

The present invention has for its object the avoidance of theabovementioned defects. The three operations of the stopping, starting,and turning or directing of the bobbin are rendered possible by means ofmerely a single device,by the stopping of the bobbin taking place notata place at a distance from the switch, but directly at the latter. Forthis purpose for the customary tongue-switch a peculiar switch system issubstituted, by means of which the bobbins are not only turned ordirected, but also set in operation again. The switch system consists oftwo switch-slides actuated by any suitable mechanism, which when theyare both drawn back move the bobbin out of the reach of thedriving-wings and allow it to enter a siding provided under the switchesin the guide-plate, in which it remains until set in operation again.The front ends of the switches are so formed that on being pushedforward they again bring the stationary bobbin into the path of thedriving-wings and according as to whether the one or the other switch ispushed forward turn or direct the same toward the one or-the other side.

According to the present invention the drawing off of the finishedfabric is brought about by producing the fabric in a flat open form overbands sliding along the mandrel, a number of outer rollers pressedradially inward, instead of which bands can also beemployed pressing thefabric tightly against the inner bands sliding over the mandrel, so thata tearing of the fabric is out of the question, and consequently thesupplementary threads are superfluous, as the fabric has not beensubjected to apull by the drawing-off rollers.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate one embodiment of thepresent invention, Figure 1 is a central vertical section of alace-making machine. Fig. 2 is a plan of the guide-plate. Fig. 3 is apartial sectional side elevation of a bobbin-switch. Fig. 4: is a planof the bobbin-switch in the working position. Fig. 5 is a plan of thebobbin-switch in the position of rest of the switch. Fig. 6 is alongitudinal section through thedrawingoff device, and Fig. 7 is atransverse section through the same.

On the base-plate 1 of the machine the driving-wheels 3 are mounted,their number corresponding to the number of threads, said wheelsrotating on the bolts 4. The races of the bobbin-carriers are bounded inthe ordinary manner by the guide-plate 2 and the plates 5, mounted onthe bolts 1. In the guideplate 2 a recess 6 is provided at the placewhere the driving-wings 3 of two neighboring driving-wheels diverge,into which recess the neck 7 of the bobbin-carrier 8 can enter in orderto get out of the reach of the drivingwings. In order to set thebobbin-carrier in operation again and in order at the same time todirect it to the one side or the other, the two switch-slides 9 9 arearranged on the guideplate 2, said switch-slides being guided in a box11, mounted on the guide-plate. The front ends 10 of the twoswitch-slides 9 9 are given a form corresponding to the circular race ofthe bobbin-carrier, for the purpose of directing and restarting thebobbin, so that on pushing forward the switch the front end 10 comesagainst the stop 12 of the bobbincarrier, and so brings the latterwithin the reach of the driving-wings. The direction of the bobbintoward the one or the other side is effected by pushing forward the oneor the other switch. Projections 13 prevent the switches being pushedback too far into the box by coming against the box. The pushing forwardand backward of the two switches 9 and 9 is effected by means of twolevers 15, turning upon a common axle 1 1, said levers engaging withpins 16, fixed on the back ends of the switches. By means of the links17 the levers are connected with the one arm of the bell-crank levers19, turning on the pivots 18. The other arms 20 of said bell-cranklevers are engaged by the drawwires 21, connected with a suitablepattern device. The length of the latter arms is so adjusted that whenthe switches are in their position of rest the pin 22 of thebobbin-carrier can slide past them, bringing the neck 7 of thebobbin-carrier into the recess 6 in the guide-plate. For bringing thewhole switch system back into its position of rest the springs 24 areemployed, which engage with the shorter arms of the levers 15 and whichare mounted on a foot 23, said foot being arranged on the base-plate 1and serving at the same time as a bearing for the pivots 14 and 18. If astationary bobbin is, for example, to be again set in operation along arace running to the right, a bell-crank lever 19, by means of thepattern device, is pulled by the 5 draw-wire 21, so that the end of thelever-arm 20 leaves the bobbin-pin 22 free to be moved toward thedirection of running. It will be seen that the levers moving the switchslides are under the action of the springs 24, so that the switch-slidesare afterward drawn back into their normal position, and the ends of thearms 20 are elevated so as to catch the pins 22 of the bobbin-carrierswhen the said pin strikes them to guide the carrier into the recess 6.The switch-slide 9 is simultaneously pushed forward and presses thebobbin-carrier again into the reach of the driving-wings, which engageit and carry it farther. On restarting a bobbin on a race running to theleft the switch-slide 9, lever 15, and bell-crank lever 19, determinedfor this purpose, are set in motion in the same manner. The same cycleof events takes place if a running bobbin is to be guided from one. raceto the other. On stopping a bobbin the switches and levers remain in theposition of rest, in which they are kept by the springs 24:. The bobbinthen runs with its pin 22 be tween the two lever-arms 20 and remains stationary in the recess 6 in the guide-plate 2.

The fabric is produced in a well-known manner over a mandrel 25, carriedby its rod 26, said mandrel being arranged in the middle of thethread-assembler 27. Over the circumference of the mandrel 25 a seriesof bands, corresponding in number to the width of the fabric to beproduced, is conducted. These bands are either endless or of a lengthoorres ending to the length of the lace and are kept in progressivemotion by one or more drawing-off rollers 29 30. Pressure-rollers 31,corresponding in number to the number of bands,

cooperate with these bands 28, serving as fab" ric-carriers, saidpressureaollers beingarranged above the thread=assembler 27 directlyover the place where the crossing of the in terlaced strands takes placeand pressing the fabric tightly against the bands 28, thus ins suringthe driving of the fabric by means of the latter, so that it can bedrawn off from the roller 33 without tearing. The pressure rollers 31are carried by bell crank levers 3 1, the pressure exerted on the fabric32 being regulated by a set-screw 35, arranged in the second arm of thelever. The bell-crank le vers 34 are mounted revolubly in hearings insupporting-arms 36, which can be displaced as desired along the inneredge of the plate 37, which is provided with a central opening, and bescrewed fast in the desired position by means of the binding-screws 38,so that an ac cidental displacementof the bell-crank levers is out ofthe question. The plate 37 is supported by the pillars 39 and thecross-bars 11, resting on the transverse bars 40. On the transverse bars40 the rollers 29 30, effecting the drawing off of the bands 28, arealso arranged, said rollers being only diagrammatim ally indicated inthe drawings.

1 use the term rollers in a broad enough sense to include theirwell-known equivalentssuch as bands, either endless or other \visesolong as such equivalents are adapted to be pressed inward against thelace being formed on the mandrel.

Instead of the pressure-rollers 31 represented in the drawings bandssimilar to the bands 28, serving as fabric-carriers, can be employed,which can be drawn 01f either by the rollers 29 30 or by specialrollers.

It is of course to be understood that the scope of the present inventionis not confined to the particular embodiment illustrated in the drawingsand described, but that said scope is indicated by the claims.

I claim as my invention 1. A lace-making machine provided withbobbin-carriers, a guide-plate having intercommunicating races therein,means for driving the carriers in said races, guide devices located atthe crossing of said races, said guideplate having a siding-recesstherein at such crossing, and a pattern mechanism for controlling saidguide devices.

2. A- lace-making machine provided with bobbin-carriers andintercommunicating races therefor, means for driving the carriers insaid races, a siding-recess being located at the crossing of said races,guide devices located at the crossing of said races including slides inpairs adapted to determine the starting and the direction of travel ofsaid bobbin-carrier from its position of rest within said sidingrecess,and a pattern mechanism'for controlling said guide devices.

3. A lace-making machine provided with bobbin carriers, andintercommunicating races therefor, means for driving the carriers insaid races, guide devices located at the crossing of said races, asiding-recess being located at such crossing, and a pattern mechanismfor controlling said guide devices, in combination with a mandrel overwhich the formed lace is drawn, traveling bands pass-,

FRIEDRICH AUGUST SCHMIDT.

Witnesses: V

O'rTo KoNIe, J. A. RITTERsHAUs.

